Thanksgivukkah: Rare 2-in-1 Holiday Mash-up

A Thanksgivvukah poster from the people at Modern Tribe,

Last year, Hanukkah arrived about two weeks after Thanksgiving--and for me that was already too soon. We'd just had our traditional family feast at my mother-in-law's house--and before I could take a breath, I was up to my elbows in potato latkes, brisket and rugelach for my annual Hanukkah gathering. This year, the schedule's even more challenging. For the first time in 125 years, the first day of Hanukkah coincides with Thanksgiving. Oy!

Menurkeys are hot right now.
 (Photo credit: New York Times) 

The Web is alive with stories of this rare holiday mash-up. It's even got its own name--Thanksgivukkah--along with Facebook and Twitter accounts and a Wikipedia entry. There are Thanksgivukkah cards, posters, coloring books, even a rap song and Thanksgivukkah-themed nails. A turkey-shaped menorah called a Menurkey, dreamed up by a precocious 9-year-old kid from New York City, is flying off the Internet--not to mention the little ditty that goes along with it ("Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, come light the Menurkey. Once in a lifetime, the candles meet the turkey."). There's even a parody trailer in which the twofer celebration gets extended for eight days, with two families--one Jewish, one gentile--locked together in turkey/latke hell.

 YouTube Video screen shot of Thanksgivukkah gone amok.

Since the two holidays apparently won't coincide again until the year 79811, Thanksgivukkah has become a magnet for media, marketers, comedians and, yes, food bloggers like yours truly. What could be more fun than trying to dream up a menu that combines the flavors of these two food-centric holidays? After all, they're eminently compatible--more, I think, than Christmas and Hanukkah, two holidays that we're used to seeing converge at the end of December. The possibilities are endless, and dozens of recipes are popping up on the Web: Manischewitz-brined turkey, challah chestnut stuffing and pumpkin tsimmes are just a few that caught my attention.

Thanksgivukkah Pumpkin Tsimmes from food writer Jennie Schacht

I haven't yet figured what to bring to my mother-in-law's and whether to tone down my Hanukkah party--or ignore the calendar and delay the celebration until late December--when perhaps we'll toast the usual Chrismukkah mash-up instead. But ultimately, tradition must triumph (in this case, two traditions!), so we will have our latkes and turkey on November 28, perhaps mixing some cranberries into the applesauce and adding a pinch of pumpkin spice. Then later, a post-Hanukkah celebration. We might call it Un-Hanukkah and hold it in the holiday-free pause between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But I'm covering my bets by buying a Menurkey and some candles in varying shades of pumpkin. Oh, yes, and a turkey dreidel!

Gobble tov!

Autumn Soup: Yellow Split Pea, Pumpkin & Sweet Potato

Beautiful Soup, so rich and green,

Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!

-- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

I made soup this week, though it wasn't green but orangey-gold from the yellow split peas, pumpkin, sweet potato and saffron I added. I was inspired by a recipe I found in one of my favorite cookbooks, Claudia Roden's The Book of Jewish Food. The book, subtitled "An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York," is as much a history of Jewish cooking--and the peripatetic journey of the Jewish people themselves--as it is a compendium of diverse recipes from Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews. My own family comes from an Ashkenazi (German-Russian) background, making me more familiar with typical eastern European Jewish dishes such as borscht, blintzes and gefilte fish, so I'm particularly fascinated with Roden's section on Sephardi cooking. These include, broadly, dishes developed by Jews who lived in lands along the Mediterranean (Spain, Turkey, Morocco), as well as in the Middle East and India. The food combinations, flavors and spices are quite different than those I recall from childhood. My mother often made soups too, with lentil, split pea and barley on regular rotation for Sunday brunch (along with sides of cold roast beef, tuna salad and boiled tongue). But adding cinnamon, ginger and pumpkin to a soup? That would have struck her as very strange.

No soaking is required for dry yellow lentils. 

After making some more pumpkin puree using the steamer method (I used it previously when I made pumpkin pecan bread), I searched through Roden's book for pumpkin recipes and found a surprising number of them, with several in the savory category. A Moroccan selection caught my eye: Potakhe de Potiron, which Roden translates as "Yellow Split Pea and Pumpkin Soup." I pretty much followed her recipe, but, as usual, changed a few things. Instead of cubed pumpkin, I used puree, replaced ground ginger with fresh and added a diced sweet potato. I reduced the amount of oil (from 4 tablespoons to one), replacing sunflower with coconut and adding some lemon and orange juices. But these are small changes--and you can make your own.

Pumpkin & spice

Yellow Split Pea and Pumpkin Soup 

(Adapted from The Book of Jewish Food)

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups yellow split peas
1 large onion, chopped
2 3/4 quarts chicken stock
1 tablespoon coconut, sunflower or other vegetable oil
2 cups pumpkin puree (fresh, canned* or cubed pumpkin)
1 small sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 to 2 teaspoons fresh-grated ginger root (or 1/4 teaspoon ground)
1/4 teaspoon saffron
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
1 to 2 teaspoons honey**

*Use one 15-ounce can
**Optional

Diced sweet potato 

Directions

Chop the onion and saute in oil until softened but not brown. Put the yellow split peas in a soup pot with the stock, and add the sauteed onion. Bring to a boil and simmer until the split peas are tender. This can take 30 minutes to an hour, so be sure and  taste-test a few. They should be soft but not mushy. 

Add pumpkin puree (or cubes), sweet potato and spices. Simmer until the sweet potato (and pumpkin if it's cubed) is falling apart. Add orange and lemon juices, and salt and pepper to taste. If you sample and decide the soup could use a bit more sweetness, add a teaspoon or two of honey. 

Soup is on!

Tinkering:

1. Roden suggests sprinkling some finely chopped flat-leaf parsley on top. I chose to garnish the soup with a tablespoon of Greek yogurt and some toasted pumpkin seeds. It's great either way--or try both!

2. Dried chickpeas can be used in place of the yellow split peas. In that case, soak them for several hours, preferably overnight, before boiling until soft. Somehow I think canned wouldn't work as well.

3. For a smoother texture, puree the soup using a blender or food processor.

4. Some variations of this soup use meat and marrow bones. I think it might be interesting to go meatless and try a vegetarian broth for the base and vegan sour cream on top.

5. If you want more chicken flavor, try this idea to amp up the stock: Combine a leftover roast chicken carcass, including pan juices, a cup of water and two quarts of low-sodium chicken stock (I use Trader Joe's  organic variety). Add a half cup each of rough-chopped carrot, celery and onion. Boil the mixture for about an hour, then strain and continue with the soup recipe.

Imported red saffron, a gift from a friend

1

Pumpkin Pecan Bread: Less Fat, More Pumpkin

To me, pumpkin bread is the ultimate in comfort food. But, even when I feel the need for comfort, I avoid making it in summer because to me pumpkins mean autumn--even if here in Southern California, temperatures are registering in the 90's. Whatever the thermometer reading, I felt justified in making pumpkin bread this week.

The recipe I chose is adapted from a reduced-fat and calorie pumpkin pecan bread I found at MyRecipes. Here's my version, with nutritional information and suggested variations at the bottom. I used homemade pumpkin puree, which is very simple to make and I think enhanced the bread's flavor and texture. You can read about how I did it elsewhere on my blog. If you're pressed for time (and who isn't?), use the canned variety. It will be great either way!

Pumpkin Bread With Toasted Pecans

(Two 9x5-inch loaves)

Ingredients

2 cups white all-purpose flour

1 1/3 cups white whole wheat flour (or regular whole wheat)

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup dark or light brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup egg whites (from about 4 large eggs, or use egg substitute)

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk

2/3 cup water (or liquid from steamed pumpkin)

15 ounces of pumpkin (2 cups fresh pulp minus 1 ounce--or one 15-ounce can)

1/3 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray two 9x5-inch loaf pans with oil.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together flours, baking powder, soda, salt and spices. Whisk the dry ingredients until well-combined.

Place the sugars, oil, egg whites (or substitute) and buttermilk in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer (or by hand) at medium speed until well blended. Add the pumpkin and water, beating at low speed until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat briefly at low speed, making sure that all ingredients are incorporated but not over-mixed.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Sprinkle toasted pecans on top.

Bake in the oven for 50 minutes to an hour, checking toward the end to make sure the loaves aren't browning too quickly. If they are, place some foil loosely on top. The bread will be done when a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaves comes out clean.

 After Words

Each loaf makes about 12 generous slices. To reduce the calories even further, cut them in half! The bread keeps for 2 or 3 days at room temperature and freezes well (for about a month) when wrapped tightly in a double thickness of saran, then placed inside a deflated plastic bag. Warmed in the microwave for a few seconds, it tastes as if it just popped out of the oven!

Nutritional Info (1 3/4" slice)

Calories: 183

Fat: 6 grams

Carbs: 31 grams

Fiber: 2 grams

Protein: 5 grams

Weight Watchers points: 5

Variations & Enhancements

1. Mix toasted, chopped pecans with 2-3 additional tablespoons of brown sugar and about 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Sprinkle on top of the loaves before baking.

2. Allergic to nuts? Substitute lightly toasted rolled oats for above.

3. Fold in 1/2 cup dried cranberries, raisins or chopped dried apricots--or 1/4 cup chopped candied ginger--just before pouring the batter into the loaf pans.

4. Use chopped walnuts or mixed nuts instead of the pecans. Incorporate the nuts in the batter, then sprinkle a few more on top.

5. Add the grated zest of an orange to the wet ingredients, substituting orange juice (preferably fresh) for the water.

6. Spread the bread with cream cheese, pumpkin butter--or both--for a decadent treat.

7. Serve heated with a scoop of pumpkin or vanilla ice cream for dessert.

DIY Pumpkin Puree: Instead of Libby's

There's something about pumpkins. When the bright orange globes start sprouting on doorsteps around town, you know that fall is in full swing, with Halloween and Thanksgiving sure to arrive before you can say, "gobble, gobble!"

When my son was small, the season usually meant a trip to a pumpkin patch to pick out perfect candidates to carve into jack-o-lanterns with face-splitting grins. Sometimes a slight detour took us to a haunted house--and once to a cornstalk maze where a scary guy with a chainsaw tore after us (supposedly there was no chain in the saw so it couldn't actually do any real damage--or so my husband assured me while laughing hysterically).

No chainsaws in this North Carolina corn maze
 Photo credit: hallfamilyfarm.com

One thing I never did with those pumpkins was to actually cook them. I recall trying it once and making a pumpkin pie that was stringy--something a pumpkin pie should never be. It was a lot easier to purchase a can of Libby's and make the recipe on the back.

Lately, I've been in DIY mode--probably something to do with starting this blog. I figure I can experiment with anything edible, and, if it doesn't turn out, I'll just write about it; my readers will presumably be entertained and learn what not to do--for instance, how not to make a stringy pumpkin pie (yeah, just open a can!).

Inveterate googler that I am, I searched online for how to make pumpkin puree. I found pretty acceptable directions at a site called PickYourOwn.org. It suggests a few different ways of cooking a pumpkin--baking, microwaving and steaming among them. Knowing how long it takes to bake a dense winter squash in the oven, I opted for steam. I used one of the two pie pumpkins (sometimes called sugar pumpkins or sugar pie pumpkins) I'd purchased at Trader Joe's. Apparently, the large jack-o-lantern types are more likely to turn out stringy, though all are edible. This one measured only about 6 inches across.

I chopped it in half with a sharp knife. PickYourOwn recommended using a serrated knife and a sawing motion, but I used one with a straight-edge, stabbing the point into the orange flesh, then cutting around the sphere until it fell away in two pieces. I scooped out the interior with a heavy-duty ice cream scoop, set the seeds aside to bake later, scraped away the pesky little strings that adhered to the pumpkin's interior walls and cut off the stubby green stem.

Next, I chopped the pumpkin into pieces small enough to fit into my 3.5-quart steamer, put water in the pot up to just below the bottom of the steamer basket, then popped the pumpkin pieces inside, put the lid on and turned on the burner.

After first allowing the water to come to a boil, I turned down the heat and cooked it for about 25 to 30 minutes, poking  a fork into the pumpkin meat occasionally to see if it was soft. When it was, I took off the lid to let the pumpkin cool for a bit. Then came the fun part: scooping out the goop with a spoon. It came away from the rind pretty easily and wasn't at all stringy. Samples of the orange goo were sweeter than I expected and definitely more flavorful than the canned variety. I fantasized about mashing it with a little butter, brown sugar and nutmeg and eating it for dessert. But I'll save that for a future blog.

To make sure there were no lumps or strings, I used my Cuisinart hand blender to puree the mixture (a food processor might work even better). That was a little tricky. The blender works great for liquefying soups, but this mix was a bit thick, so I had to add some of the leftover pumpkin water, which helped. In a few minutes, the mix turned into a gorgeous orange mush. My pumpkin yielded about 2 1/2 cups. Yours might make more, depending on its size, but I was happy with the result. The downside was the entire process took almost 2 hours.  On balance, I might just open a can next time!

Don't forget to check out my recipe for a lighter (but still delicious) Pumpkin Pecan Bread!